I did it and I lived to tell about it

The triathlon was awesome!! I am thrilled to say that I exceeded my expectations on my times and had a blast doing it. I was hoping to finish in under 2 hours and my official finishing time was 1 hour, 34 minutes. Can I hear a "Woo Hoo?!" I felt so good that I ran about 1/2 of the 5K at the end. I had some great supporters there cheering me on. My mom was the most enthusiastic fan, and it sure was wonderful hearing her chants..."Go KB!!!" Kayla, Kevin, Kim W and Barb Hidde faced the elements also and made there voices heard. And since Eryn and Colleen made it to the finish line before me, they were there cheering me on as well. :) One thing I would change is that I underestimated myself on the swimming and was stuck with lots of poor swimmers. My mom wanted to be a sniper from stands and get those people out of her daughter's way. She supports me "whatever it takes." I can't even express how wonderful I feel and how blessed I feel that the day went so well. Thanks friends...I truly don't think I could have done it without such wonderful encouragement. More later. Time for dinner.

Cameras are no longer the enemy

Three or four months ago, I would have grabbed the camera from Jessica's hands or run away to keep from getting my pictured taken. Although I still don't love having my picture taken, at least I can relax and just have fun.

22 pounds...gone forever!

ONLY 6 DAYS LEFT!!

Only 6 days left until the triathlon. Today was my last hard workout before the race. Now for the rest of the week I will be tapering. I even have a day off tomorrow. That is going to be really weird, but I know it is necessary for recuperation. Today, I swam 400 meters, followed by a 10 mile bike ride and a 20 minute walk. I still have to stop for breathers during the swim, but I figure if I can just make it 50 meters at a time, I don't mind letting people pass me so I can catch my breath for a few seconds. I am really excited about my bike ride tonight because up to this point I have done most of my rides on an indoor bike and it is so different. I was concerned that I would have a hard time riding the full 10 miles on a regular bike. Well...I did it. Yay! I can say with one week left that I am not exactly where I hoped I would be since I won't be running the 3 miles ( I'll be walking), and since I can't yet swim the entire 400 meters. I am thrilled to be where I am though, and the way I look at it is that I have left myself room for new goals. I am currently looking for another tri similar to this one that I can train for, and hopefully I'll be able to accomplish those goals for the next one. I remember looking ahead in my training book, and thinking..."I can't even imagine doing these workouts, but I want to believe that I can do this." All I can say is "God is good!!"

Another thing I am pumped about is my mid-point bod pod results. I went tonight and found that I had lost 10.7 pounds of fat and gained 3.3 pounds of muscle. Woo Hoo! It feels wonderful to have that confirmation that I am losing weight the right way.
My percent of fat pounds lost was 20.5% , lowering my body fat percent down from 34.8% to 29.1%. I would love to see that around 25% next time. One thing I plan to do after the triathlon is increase my weight lifting to 3 times per week. Hopefully that will help me to reach that goal.

What a journey we are on gals...and it sure feels great to reclaim my health. Thanks for all of the encouragement and for being wonderful examples! Keep reaching for your goals!